Material-Robot Systems·Inverse & Generative Design·Embodied Intelligence·Large-scale Meta-structures
Cornell University
Research
From programmable matter to embodied intelligence to reconfigurable structures: we create the computational and fabrication tools to engineer matter across scales.
Designing material systems with embodied intelligence: from digital and programmable matter to structural robotics to blur the boundary between structure and machine.
Developing new computational workflows that integrate simulation, optimization, and generative methods with novel geometry representations to design architected structures from desired performance.
Exploring growth, morphing, and reconfiguration principles for scalable macro-scale structures built from discrete building blocks.
Creating new fabrication techniques inspired by natural construction strategies: from bio-inspired assembly to self-replicating structures.
People
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor
Joint appointment in the multicollege Department of Design Tech and Cornell Engineering's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Amira Abdel-Rahman is an assistant professor at Cornell University, with a joint appointment in the multicollege Department of Design Tech and the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where she leads the Architected Matter Group.
Before joining Cornell, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Engineering Design and Computing Laboratory at ETH Zürich. She earned her Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Bits and Atoms, where she developed inverse-design workflows powered by physics-informed artificial intelligence for the design and fabrication of large-scale material-robot systems.
She holds a Master’s in Design Studies in Technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a bachelor’s degree from the American University in Cairo. Her professional experience includes positions at NVIDIA on the Simulation Technology team and at Autodesk in the Generative Design group, where she contributed to research at the intersection of computational design, artificial intelligence, and simulation.
Students
Join Us
Interested in rethinking how we design and make things? We'd love to hear from you! Get in touch at amiraa at cornell.edu